Re: Credit Card Debt - Can I settle

I agree witht he above. Do not settle. Even if it does not have a huge impact on your scores, it will have an impact on your ability to get credit with these people later. Also, settelement is like the step before BK. If you have 16K in cash and are still on time to all of these accounts, it sounds like you may just need to hold down some spending habits (or you had some serious problem in the past and used credit to get throguh it) My point being that is sounds like you should be easily able to pay off the 16K that has the highest interest rate, and then use the payments you have been making on the 20K towards the 4 K and get it all PIF in the next few months. Then, the accounts will remain open and you will have a big positive impact on your scores due to low utilitization.

The flip side is that if you settle, the accounts will all be closed and it will be difficult to get credit for quite awhile after. On top of that, your utilization and credit history length will be hurt as well. You could see a pretty big drop in scores between the settlements, the history, and the util.

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IMPORTANT INFORMATION: All FICO® Score products made available on myFICO.com include a FICO® Score 8, along with additional FICO® Score versions. Your lender or insurer may use a different FICO® Score than the versions you receive from myFICO, or another type of credit score altogether. Learn more

FICO, myFICO, Score Watch, The score lenders use, and The Score That Matters are trademarks or registered trademarks of Fair Isaac Corporation. Equifax Credit Report is a trademark of Equifax, Inc. and its affiliated companies. Many factors affect your FICO Score and the interest rates you may receive. Fair Isaac is not a credit repair organization as defined under federal or state law, including the Credit Repair Organizations Act. Fair Isaac does not provide "credit repair" services or advice or assistance regarding "rebuilding" or "improving" your credit record, credit history or credit rating. FTC's website on credit.